Transcript
A (0:02)
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B (0:30)
Well, the first point would be he is entirely indifferent to the rule of law. Genuinely, Donald Trump does not care. He does not care about the United States Constitution. He does not care about the law. He only cares to the extent that he continues to maintain support from his base. Beyond that, he's indifferent to the law. And I've seen that time and time again over many years.
C (0:55)
And now the Good Fight with Jasia Monk. My guest today is Miles Taylor, also known to the world as Anonymous. Taylor was, among other positions, the chief of Staff of the Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump administration, and in 2018 he published an op ed in the New York Times under the name Anonymous called I am Part of a Resistance inside the Trump Administration. We talked about the way in which the Trump administration is seeking revenge on its perceived political enemies by canceling the security clearance and canceling the security details, going after law firms and universities and what that means for threats to democracy in the second Trump administration. We talked about why people like Taylor, who had from the beginning been privately skeptical of Trump, decided to go into the first Trump administration, and the way that he fought about when he should disagree with the president privately or when he should defy orders that he regarded as illegal. We also talked about how the adults in the room might be owed an apology because the contrast between the second Trump administration, the first Trump administration, shows that it really did prevent some damaging steps from being taken by Trump. We also, however, spat a little bit about the wisdom and morality of considering yourself to be a kind of internal resistance to a democratically elected leader like Donald Trump. Where does the duty of a civil servant to stand up to illegal, unconstitutional steps? And where do civil servants who disagree with a principle start to substitute their own political judgment for that of their leader? And is the right way to respond in those kind of circumstances to resign in a public manner, to call the attention of the voters of the American people to misdeeds in the government? Or is it to engage in anonymous, quote, unquote resistance, as Taylor proudly proclaimed in that op ed? Finally, in the last part of this conversation, which is reserved for paying subscribers, we talked about what to expect from the next three and a half years of the Trump administration. Are we on the path to a country in which people are afraid to speak out and criticize the president, or is America's tradition of free speech going to prevail? Is the press going to continue to be able to scrutinize the actions of a president in a robust manner? To listen to that part of the conversation? To support this podcast, to get free access to every single one of our episodes, please go to yashamunk.substack.com. Mads Taylor welcome to podcast, Yasha.
